Allowing God to undress us in the desert is not pleasant nor comfortable yet believe me when I tell you that what is uncovered once he does makes it well worth it. Below I would like to share with you some of the transformations I have been experiencing in my life during the last 14 years as I have roamed into some of the darkest and dirtiest places within me. These changes have happened as I have accepted the grace to be able to shed the labels that I had come to identify my life with which were of course not true. The pain and the suffering in some of these areas was and still is at times very real yet the underlying message they led me to believe about myself was not.
Here are some of those brief thoughts listed below:
1- The label of slave makes way for us to be revealed as sons and daughters.
2- The label of mighty warrior makes way for us to be revealed as tender lovers.
3- The label of religious soldier makes way for us to be revealed as ambassadors of the Kingdom.
4- The label of lost makes way for us to be revealed and found in Christ.
5- The label of mentally tough makes way for us to be revealed as sensitive romantics.
6- The label of false and polluted makes way for us to be revealed as authentic and pure.
7- The label of human doings makes way for us to be revealed as human beings.
8- The label of absent and ashamed makes way for us to be revealed as present and vulnerable.
9- The label of outsider makes way for us to be revealed as family members.
10- The label of arrogant and afraid makes way for us to be revealed as confident and brave.
11- The label of disintegrated and shallow makes way for us to be revealed as whole and intimate.
In spirituality entering a desert is not a choice but something that is part of our journey. The opportunity to choose comes when we decide what happens in that space. Once in the desert God encouraged the Israelites to choose life. To choose what was real and true and not what was idle and false. Like them we too have a choice to make. So if we are serious about discovering our real life in Christ then we must realize that we need to relax and let God undress us in the desert. As it only then that all that is not true and burdensome about us will have a chance to be shed so that what is good and true can be uncovered.
Meditate – Will the desert be the resting place of our entire life or will it just be for that part of us that is illusional and false?
-pablo-
